"It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete. It is a matter of converting our high technology from WEAPONRY to LIVINGRY."

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I generally dislike people quoting other people's blog articles at great length, but Steve Scolnik's blog is more than a bit interesting right now and I'll make an exception.

The National Weather Service reports that Wednesday's (June 15) high at Tallahassee, Florida was the all-time hottest temperature in records dating back over a century:

AT 307 PM EDT...THE TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL AIRPORT RECORDED A HIGHTEMPERATURE OF 105 DEGREES. THIS TEMPERATURE BREAKS THE PREVIOUS ALLTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORD FOR TALLAHASSEE...WHICH WAS 104 DEGREESSET MOST RECENTLY ON JUNE 20TH 1933. THE PERIOD OF RECORD FORTALLAHASSEE DATES BACK TO 1892.

The old record had also been observed on 4 other previous occasions. The previous day's high of 103° also blasted away the old record for June 14 by 4°. So far this month, daily records have also been set on June 1 (103° vs. 101° in 1927), June 3 (101° vs. 100° in 2000), and June 13 (102° vs. 101° in 2010). For the first 2 weeks of June, Tallahassee's temperature has averaged 5.8° above normal.

The high temperature of 98° at Apalachicola blasted away the previous record for June 15, set just last year, by 4°. The previous day's high of 97° also broke a daily record of 95° set last year.

Elsewhere in Florida, daily records were set at Miami (96° vs. 94° in 2010) and Gainesville (103° vs. 100° in 1977). Records were tied at Tampa (95°) and Daytona Beach (99°).

Meanwhile here in Texas, well,

I guess the most notable thing is that 97 F no longer qualifies as "hot".

I hear people complaining about the weather, and, Texas newbie that I am, I shrug and say "that's Texas in summer for you, I guess", but the old-timers squint at me and say "but it's only June".

Central Texas experienced one of the driest October to May periods on record, said Bob Rose, chief meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River Authority. Normally, the region would get 23.1 inches from October to May; this year, only 8.96 inches of rain have fallen at Austin's Camp Mabry, Rose said.

Rain is not typical in July, and it could be as late as August or September before Central Texas sees any, Rose said. The dry spell is due to one of the strongest La Niña patterns the Southwest has seen, he added.

I played with the colors on the official drought map of Texas and came up with something pretty (click to embiggen). It's not so pretty on the ground, though. Over half the state is in "exceptional drought" and less than a fiftieth is in "normal" conditions. Exactly backwards of the statistically typical proportions. If the colors were reversed, this would be an unremarkable map.

P.S. You were a day early on the Texas drought. The latest weekly data, posted this morning, puts the exceptional area (highest of 5 categories) up 7 percentage points to 65%, so it's more like two-thirds than one half.

The quote>The dry spell is due to one of the strongest La Niña patterns the Southwest has seenmakes me want to respond "You mean the once fairly-strong La Niña that is now completely finished according to the ENSO index?